By Canadian Press

Forge FC CONCACAF League quarterfinal goes ahead despite positive COVID-19 tests

Dec 1, 2020 | 4:01 PM

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — One Forge FC staff member and two players from Haiti’s Arcahaie FC tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the teams’ Scotiabank CONCACAF League quarterfinal Tuesday evening.

CONCACAF said all three had been isolated. All other players and staff tested negative with the match scheduled to go ahead as planned.

A win and the Canadian Premier League champions from Hamilton earn a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, the confederation’s top club tournament.

The four quarterfinal winners in the 22-team CONCACAF League, a feeder competition, qualify directly for the 2021 Champions League. The four losing quarterfinalists will compete in single-leg play-in games, with the two winners moving on.

Arcahaie is playing the game in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo to make use of the larger Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez.

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The Haitians advanced Nov. 5 with a 3-1 round-of-16 win over Waterhouse FC in Kingston, Jamaica. Forge edged Panama’s Tauro FC 2-1 on a stoppage-time penalty two days earlier in Panama City.

Arcahaie moved into the round of 16 when Belize’s Verdes FC pulled out of their Oct. 20 preliminary-round match due to positive COVID-19 tests. That match was also scheduled for Santo Domingo.

Forge defeated El Salvador’s CD Municipal Limeno 2-1 in San Salvador on Oct. 22 in preliminary-round play.

The Canadian side has been training in Punta Cana, some 170 kilometres east of Santo Domingo, since Nov. 21. Forge made the trip to the capital on Monday.

Forge, thanks to its triumph in the Island Games in Charlottetown during the summer, will also have a chance to qualify for the main CONCACAF club competition when it takes on Toronto FC in final of the Canadian Championship scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

Forge exited the CONCACAF League in the round of 16 last year, beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Honduras’s Olimpia.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2020

The Canadian Press